Raining in Space
by Whispers on the Storm
Summary: This is the story of Rain Serenity Tam, daughter of Simon and Kailee.
1. Prolouge

Prolouge

Many years ago, rebels known as independent and browncoats rebelled against the alliance, who attempted to give them peace and a better way of living. They lost, and unity was achieved, although some of these rebels still live out in the black, stealing, still rebelling against the good alliance.

This is what I would have been taught on worlds such as Ariel. But instead, I was raised, not against the browncoats, but with them. My name is Rain Serenity Tam. I live on a ship that I share a middle name with. Some people would hate that, being named after a ship, but I take it as an honor, knowing how much Mom loves her. How much she loves me.

My Mother's name is Kailee Fyre. My father is Simon Tam. My aunt is River Tam. They are the only ones I share blood with on the ship, but here we're all family. And I don't call them "mommy" or "Daddy" or "Aunty" I'm a part of this crew, they are "Kailee," "Simon" and "River".

The captain is Malcom Reynolds. He is one of the two who actually fought in the war against the alliance. The other is his second in command, Zoe Warren, who's married to our pilot, Hoban Washburne, but we all just call him Wash. Jayne doesn't really do much excepts keep us all alive when there's people out tryn' to kill us, which is pretty important, I guess. Simon's the medic, Kailee's the mechanic. River is...no one really knows what River is. Maybe a kid, like me. She's smart, like me, and child-like, but the alliance did something to her, and sometimes she can't really do anything, but she's pretty cool, I mean, when everyone was busy, she took care of me when I was a baby. Kailee's fixin' Serenity, Simon's fixin' Jayne or the Captin', or just about everyone else. Mostly left River and I, but I didn't mind.

Most of my life has been spent flying around the 'verse. Avoiding alliance and reivers. And this is a small part of that life.


	2. Chapter 1

I was finishing up some quick hand-scrawled math worksheets, with the neat little writings next to it. Simon, having being raised to be a doctor, insisted I get a traditional education. Once, for about a month, I went to a school on one of the outer planets, back when Kaylee and Simon wanted to settle down. I hated it. I hated the same thing everyday, I hated being away from the crew and I hated being away from Serenity. Luckily, so did Kaylee, so it was more of a small vacation, but Simon still insisted on trying to teach me, and Kaylee was the only one on the ship who could read his handwriting, so she always gave me a double she wrote so I could read it. I don't think Simon every caught on.  
I was just writing the final answer on the last question, when everything on the table was thrown against the side of the wall as the ship gave a great jerk, accompanied by lots of banging and crashing. Having grown up on Serenity, I was accustomed to this, and my foot reflexively caught on the bench and I leaned down to grab it. After a moment to gather my bearings, I leapt up, and started running down the hall. Whatever had happened, it wasn't good, and I was more than likely needed to help. As this thought crossed my mind, Mal was coming on over the intercom. "Notice to all crew, we appear to have lost that primary buffer panel...again. And something else. I don't know. Kaylee, Rain, someone get up on the bridge!" and then it stopped and crackled.  
"What the gorram hell is going on out here?" Jayne said, emerging from his bunk with some weapon or another as I grabbed the railing and swung up and over the corner, the metal groaning under my weight. I dropped the six feet or so to the next level, right in front of him. "Gorram, Rain, what but I cut him off, "Gotta go Jayne, see ya!" I shouted back, leaping over another railing. This time no one was in the way, and it was a straight shot to the bridge. River and Kaylee were already there. "Gone and lost her left back-up motor too, she has, wouldn't make much -a difference, except her balance is off now," she was saying, and looking outside the window, I saw what she meant. I thought that had been to much clanking on the hull to just be the primary buffer panel.  
"Wash..." Mal said, and we all knew he was asking if Serenity was still landable. To any other captain, this was impossible. Wash's only response was "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar," and I ran out, Kaylee close behind. Even if we were landing, this was going to put a lot of stress on her left side, and we needed to see what we could do. "You got it sweetie?" Kaylee asked. "Yeah," I said, crawling into the small space the motor had previously been occupying. I was about the weight of any one given part on Serenity, and if something fell out, I was usually put in place to keep the balance. I was hooked up to the harness, secure and everything. But I was her daughter, so Kaylee still insisted on worrying. I finally crawled right up against where the motor had been, and could no longer hear anything around me. I closed my eyes against the wind whistling past me where the motor had fallen minute or so I'd stick my head out the hole to see how close we were to landing. As it was, it seemed we were circling, I assumed looking for a good landing spot.  
I heard shouting from inside the ship, but I couldn't hear who or what. I knew I'd find out as soon as I climbed out of my little space between the landing gear and some wires. "No, we're not going down there. We've found ways out before, we will again," I heard the captain's voice say, but then I lost track of his voice, or whoever he was talking to, because I had to shift to avoid the landing gear as it dropped. The shock of actually hitting the ground, per usual, gave me a bit of a jerk, but thanks to Wash's landing skills, I was fine.  
"Rain?" Simon said, entering the engine room. There was also a loud clanging and I heard him bite his lip. Despite the countless "bad influences" around the ship, including myself, Simon refused to swear, particularly in front of me. I assumed he had wacked his foot on the engine. He was never very handy in the engine room. We usually kept him out. If he had come to get me, it meant that Kaylee was very busy...my guess was she was the one yelling at the captain, who had moved on to somewhere else in the ship. "Here," I said, and started humming, knowing he had no clue what holes there were, more or less which one i was in, "Follow the rope," I could picture him, all prim and proper, looking around our greasy engine room. I almost laughed aloud, "You know what, is it safe to come out?" I asked, figuring I would be in here another day or two before he found me, "Yeah, your mother sent me," I crawled over the live wires, and grabbed up some dead ones, making sure to dump them at the mouth of the opening, for future use.  
As I crawled from my hiding place, he let out a sigh of relief. Probably because he didn't have to look like an idiot and ask someone to find his daughter for him. I rubbed a bit of the engine grease off my face onto my arm, where it then got transferred to the waist of my white shirt. A cute blouse Kaylee had gotten me back during our stint on Ariel. She must have thought I didn't like it because I didn't have friends, and thought that lack of grim on all my clothes would help that. Of course, the kids never stopped thinking of me as the greasy kid from the black. The kid who loved to fly, and hated the ground. Sure, some of them dreamed of being pilots when they grew up, but they loved their planet, and their alliance. Oh, yeah, and I think my lack of friends may be because not only did I outright display my dislike for the Alliance, they had this habit of trying to beat me up for it. It got to the point I'd have about ten of them try at a time. Key word here:try. You don't mess with a girl who grew up with felonious rebels in the black. It just won't end well for you. Yeah, I wasn't a big fan of my Ariel memories. Or the clothes.  
Simons face crinkled as I ruined yet another shirt. You'd think he'd be used to it by now. "Um..." he seemed like there was something he wanted to say, but also wanted to avoid at all costs. Usually awkward or...um...rugged. "I think it would be best if you went along to your bunk, your mom and the Captain are...um...arguing," Going from his hesitation, I thought that this argument was about me. I wanted to go and see what was up, but I knew Simon either didn't want me to, or Kaylee didn't want me to, and either way, I wasn't going to get through, so I figured I would make it at least LOOK like I was going to listen. I turned away, partially because that was the direction of my bunk, but mostly to hide my smile. Simon's really clueless sometimes. Reaching the end of the hallway, I pull open my door, and walk in.


End file.
